Move over Diamond League. The Drake Relays Presented by Hy-Vee are here and they’ve got six events with $50,000 in prize money each (men’s 400m, men’s 110m h, men’s 400mh, women’s 1500, women’s 100m h, and women’s 400m h) and four field events (men’s and women’s high jump and pole vault) with $25,000 each.

The highlight for LetsRun.com fans is the women’s 1500 Meter Run Moscow Games Rematch and it will be the world’s richest 1500m race in terms of prize money for the year. It features many of America’s best including Brenda Martinez, Morgan Uceny, and Shannon Rowbury vs World bronze medallist Hellen Obiri of Kenya.

$50,000 in prize money is on the line and it only goes to to the top three. The winner takes home $25,000, second place $15,000 and third place $10,000. Finish 4th? You get nothing.

$50,000 is a ton of prize money for a single event. For reference, Diamond League events have $30,000 in prize money with the winner only taking home $10,000.

Supermarket chain Hy-Vee began sponsoring Drake last year and the huge prize money in select events is starting to get the sport’s stars to change their schedules to make sure they are in Iowa in April.

Headlining the 1500m field is last year’s 1500m bronze medallist Hellen Obiri of Kenya.

This is Obiri’s outdoor opener, but she comes in fit as she won silver at World Indoors behind Gezebe Dibaba at 3000m.

Obiri will have her hands full versus nearly all of the top Americans (except for the two highest paid 1500m runners in the US Jenny Simpson and Mary Cain).

World 800m bronze medallist Brenda Martinez leads the US contingent at Drake. Brenda is most remembered for her 800m bronze last year, but she did run 4:00.94 last year for 3rd in Monaco, just .01 behind Obiri, and ended up the year ranked #2 by Track and Field News in the USA behind Simpson, but ahead of Mary Cain.

The big question mark for Martinez and a lot of these women is how race sharp are they for 1500m? This is Martinez first race under 5000 m on the track this year. She ran an impressive 15:24 on the roads at Carlsbad, but then struggled with a 15:41 on the track at Mt. Sac last week.

Treniere Moser and Heather Kampf had the most success indoors as both made the World Indoor 1500m final. Moser finished one spot out of the medals in 4th while Kampf was DQd in the final after falling. Moser has run faster than any of the other Americans this year having clocked 4:07 indoors.

Morgan Uceny was #1 in the world at 1500m in 2011. She fell at the Olympics in 2012 and had a disappointing 2013. Saturday she won the BAA Road Mile and her coach Terrence Mahon said, “It’s 2011/2012 Morgan.” A strong run at Drake would go a long way in showing Morgan is back as Morgan’s indoor season was not that impressive.

Shannon Rowbury is a former world bronze medallist at 1500m. She did make the US team for Worlds at 3000m, but her indoor season was not great. Training under Alberto Salazar this is her first real test in 2014 under her new coach.

Gabriele Grunewald ran 4:01.48 last year so she can not be dismissed although she was only 12th at the USA Road Mile champs on Wednesday.

Katie Mackey ran 4:04.60 last year in her first 1500m of the year (and never ran faster) and was second at the US Road Mile on Tuesday so she is fit and good at running fast early in the season.

The full 1500m field is below. Below that we have all the other Pro events from Friday. Drake viewing schedule below for Friday. The women’s 1500m is at 8:25 central/9:25 eastern. Saturday tv here.

There are many other Moscow Rematch Races with $50,000 in prize money, but the highlight is the men’s 400m. Olympic champ Kirani James vs World Champ LaShawn Merritt vs Luguelin Santos with Jeremy Wariner in there for old time sake and triple jumper Christian Taylor who is running the 400 this year.